She’s got big day beef.
A professional wedding photographer is dividing social media after claiming she was forced to eat a steak with her bare hands — on the floor — when the bride and groom’s venue failed to provide her with a fork and knife.
Megan Claire, from Orange County, Calif., is also sparking online debate for calling out times she’s forced suffer for 8 hours before she can take a potty break — but online critics aren’t exactly on this straight-shooter’s side.
“Another wedding I’m eating dinner with my hands because the vendors forgot utensils for photographers,” said Claire in one of her viral videos, which has beefed up over 1 million TikTok views.
“The steak made this extra fun,” she sarcastically captioned the clip, one of many that helped her grow an audience of 25,000 followers and more than 2 million likes.
However, rather than showing sympathy for the inelegant inconvenience, virtual savages rebuked Claire for expecting to be afforded the same amenities as a wedding invitee.
“You’re not a guest. You’re the help,” a snarky commenter reminded Claire.
“Your not a guest of the wedding,” echoed another detractor. “You’re already being paid big money to be there. Any other job you bring your own lunch for work.”
Warning: There is some strong language in the footage below.
One TikTok watchdog wrote, in part, “I was under the impression hired workers would pack a lunch…like I have to when I work…not feed them at $50 [per] plate.”
In response to the hostility, Claire issued a scathing explanation of her wedding day expectations in a subsequent TikTok post.
“I’m about to educate the f- -k out of y’all…apparently people don’t understand why we get a paid meal at the wedding instead of just bringing our lunch like everyone else,” she began. “We have no break room, we have nowhere to store our food, we have nowhere to heat it.”
Claire went on to reveal that she and other wedding vendors rarely have a proper place to sit during dinner breaks — so they’re forced to pop a squat on the floor.
“We have no seats half the time. Sometimes I’m sitting on the ground” the photo pro insisted, recalling that she’s often sat against a cement wall and ate with her hands while covering events at the Graystone Mansion in Los Angeles. “The venue doesn’t even let [us wedding vendors] inside the mansion, so [we] can’t even use anything that they have there.”
Claire went on to confess that she typically isn’t able to use the restroom for the first 8 hours of a wedding, saying, “There’s just no time.”
“You’re working to capture every single moment up until you get that small break for dinner,” she said, noting that the brief respite for food is usually as short as 5 to 15 minutes. “It’s industry standard. You have to feed your vendors a meal.”
She went on to detail the financial demands that wedding photographers endure.
“This is just not a normal job. This is not a 9 to 5 where we have any benefits,” said Claire. “We pay for our health insurance out of pocket, we don’t have anyone matching our 401k, we are just working constantly.”
She concluded with a reminder to brides and grooms that their big day staffers would appreciate separate, yet adequate accommodations for their services.
“I do not want to be treated like your guest. I don’t want to be sitting with your guests,” she said. “I want a break away from the guests — that’s the best part.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
